‘Niall, I value my life. Do you think I’d dare enrol you without checking with your mother first of all?’
‘Good, it’s just… well, I’d like to take a look at the place first, even it is just on the web.’
‘Sure, son, no problem.’
When he put the phone down, Niall felt as if the wind had been pulled from his stomach. The elation of earlier, chatting to Zoe and looking forward to the fair the following day all seemed to disappear. Sydney sounded like a prison sentence. He’d be shunted to school and his father’s apartment would never feel like home. He made a cup of coffee and sloped off up to his room. His appetite had disappeared. He just wanted to lie on his bed and play video games.
26
Dan
It was the first time he’d ever imagined his birth mother actually being real, but then, these last few days, knowing that he had come as close as he’d ever been to finding her, seemed to make her more tangible to him. It was a strange but pleasant feeling, the notion that they might be breathing the same air – then he stopped himself. He knew the chances were she’d taken the boat to London, just as the batty old nun –Sister Berthilde had suggested.
Today the sea was whispering on the sand opposite, rather than crashing against the rocks. Even the gulls had become sanguine, too lazy to consider moving off the wall across from him and instead of darting over the water they sat and occasionally dived and seemed satisfied with that. He figured he could sit here for the day, just chilling out and watching the world go by. It had been a good week; there was much to savour.
He smiled now, thinking of his agent’s reaction to the new project. He’d sent it on as soon as Elizabeth had said she liked it. As he’d expected, she didn’t see herself in it at all. It was funny, because generally people never do – not really. The only ones to see themselves in his work were people whose egos were far bigger than their brains – they were invariably wrong. He supposed the fact that he’d changed Elizabeth’s appearance, made her a little older and her husband a little younger had made her harder to recognise. That was about all he had changed though, because the story still centred around a woman who had managed to make a new life for herself and the key to her newfound joie de vivre was swimming in the cold and dark Atlantic Ocean.
The novel, which he’d had to hastily amend, finished up with a communal skinny-dip. Already, he could visualise the final scene, a bunch of women actresses, all heading off on a grey beach, whooping with laughter and only their lined and happy faces close up to the camera. It would, he knew with little doubt, translate into a fantastic piece of cinematography. This was a story of awakening and Elizabeth had recognised that. When she’d finished reading it, even if she didn’t see herself, she confided in him that it gave her courage.
He closed his eyes now against the warm rays of the sun. He liked that notion; the idea that maybe, if it was developed into a film project, it just might give someone else courage too. He tried to tell her then that a film was a million miles off. He had to find a publisher first.
‘Leave it with me,’ Harry said and Dan could hear the familiar tinge of stress to his voice. It hadn’t taken long for the call back. Harry had read it in two sittings. ‘Bloody brilliant, mate – easily, your best work ever.’
‘I’m not sure about that, but…’
‘No.’ Harry cut him off. ‘Absolutely no false modesty – it’s bloody brilliant and if anyone asks, that’s what you’re to tell them, okay?’
‘I can’t see anyone asking, unless you mean the curlews?’
‘You’re not still over there, are you?’ It sounded as if he was stretching out his arms, trying to straighten up his back after hours curled around the manuscript.
‘Where else do you think I’d be?’
‘Oh, I don’t know, maybe London?’
‘What on earth would I be doing in London?’ But of course, Dan knew: London was meant to be home. For someone like Harry, it was the centre of the universe.
‘And when are you moving back?’ That was Harry, always cutting to the quick.
‘I’m not. I’m thinking of making an offer to buy a house here,’ Dan said, his voice controlled, but firm.
‘You’re not serious?’ Dan started to laugh.
‘Actually I am.’
‘Well, make sure it’s a good investment property, because you don’t want to lose an arm and a leg when you have to sell it on.’